WESTFIELD – In what is quickly becoming a downtown holiday tradition, 22 merchants and organizations welcomed visitors during Saturday’s Third Annual Dickens Days Village Stroll, a Victorian-era themed event that celebrated the holiday season and local business.

Presented by the Westfield Business Improvement District and Westfield on Weekends, the Dickens Days Stroll, which bestowed literary titles on most merchants in keeping with the Dickens theme, was deemed a great success by business owners and organizers alike.

“Business was beyond good today,” said Ezra’s Mercantile owner Lou Sirois. “I saw a lot of new faces.”

“There were people coming in here who had no idea I was here,” she added of her shop located at 35 Elm St.

Lori Lisheness-Hooten, owner of My Favorite Place, which on Saturday was called, “Miss Havisham’s Treasures,” echoed the sentiments expressed by Sirois that the event attracted shoppers and visitors that may not have normally noticed her consignment shop.

“This is my favorite time of year,” Lisheness-Hooten said. “I wait all year for this. A lot of people have been coming through the door today.”

The same was true for Rennata M. Tropeano, an artist with the Gaslight Gallery, or “Tiny Tim’s Art Emporium,” who said the event not only attracted browsers, but buyers as well.

“It’s been a great day,” she said. “Lots of people have come through, and we’ve made lots of sales, too. People seem really excited about downtown.”

Meanwhile at Flowers by Webster at 52 Court St., dubbed “Partridge Wreath and Flower Shoppe” for the occasion, owner Gail M. Kelly said she took advantage of the event to host an open house as well.

“I love to open my doors and get to know customers,” she said in her festively decorated shop where cupcakes from Mama Cakes (“Maggie’s English Tea Cakes”), chocolates from Miss Sweet’s (“Miss Larkin’s Sweet Shoppe”) and beer and wine from The Grape Crusher (“Murdstone and Grinby Wine Dealers”) were served.

While downtown merchants were part of the “Old Curiosity Shop Tour,” from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., “Fezziwig’s Holiday Faire” craft fair was being held at the YMCA at 67 Court St., and a noon Queen Victoria’s Honors Ceremony was held at Amelia Park Children’s Museum where girls and boys received tiaras and medals, respectively, from the queen in a royal ceremony accompanied by the pomp and circumstance expected of such an occasion.

Westfield on Weekends President Robert A. Plasse, dressed for the day in exact costume as the WOW collectible caroler, said the overwhelming success of this year’s Dickens Days Stroll is a testament to the positive energy surrounding the rebirth of downtown Westfield.

“This is really beginning to take on a tradition that brings people back,” he said. 